RVDowning Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Well, you can always get a Dell, and then wipe the disk and put on your own favorite distribution, and be fairly confident that the components are Linux friendly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 You can see what they have here: http://www.dell.com/open Pricing is pretty good, specs aren't half bad. You can purchase up to a year of support if you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Looking good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted May 26, 2007 Report Share Posted May 26, 2007 You can see what they have here: http://www.dell.com/open Pricing is pretty good, specs aren't half bad. You can purchase up to a year of support if you want. Pretty good but not exactly in line with the savings... The XPS 410 is $850 with Linux and $900 with Vista and a 12 month McAfee subscription etc. I realise Dell get big discounts but $50 seems a little on the light side? So my interpretation is its presented as an "extra" option while still trying to sell most people Vista... I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this but I think there is value in calling it what it is. However, all that said its still a great positive step for Linux and Dell customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffi Posted May 26, 2007 Report Share Posted May 26, 2007 Hmmm, for US$50 I would buy the Vista license and then install linux myself.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 (edited) Hmmm, for US$50 I would buy the Vista license and then install linux myself.... ... and continue support M$'s claim that Vista proudly runs on 99.9% of desktops, because my desktop does not count as a non-Vista one! Edit: and of course in the end of financial year Dell will figure out (for the second time!) that their Linux initiative is not viable, as customers showed little interest in purchasing Linux systems. Edited May 27, 2007 by coverup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffi Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 I dont use linux to destroy ms, us$50 for a full os is a very good price... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 ... and continue support M$'s claim that Vista proudly runs on 99.9% of desktops, because my desktop does not count as a non-Vista one! Edit: and of course in the end of financial year Dell will figure out (for the second time!) that their Linux initiative is not viable, as customers showed little interest in purchasing Linux systems. maybe, maybe not. From the media, it seems like it was decision spearheaded by Michael Dell himself, and the fact he claims that he actually uses ubuntu on one of his computers might offer some future to it. That implies some sort of vested interest, so even if initially it's not financially profitable, we could well see ubuntu around on them for a while. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 I read somewhere (sorry but cannot remember where) that the reason for the small saving for not including Windows on a pc was due to the money other software companies pay Dell to include their products on Dell machines as trial software (that and the bulk purchase discount they get for Windows). He reckoned that not including Windows would actually increase the cost to Dell of each machine, someone offered to pay $100 dollars extra to not install Windows to which he replied "sold!". The last part may well be apocryphal though. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted May 28, 2007 Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 I dont use linux to destroy ms, us$50 for a full os is a very good price... Neither do I. But on a larger scale, if hardware manufacturers will see no/little revenue form non-windows systems, what would be an incentive for them to develop drivers for linux? To make my point, you may remember that many laptop users had a lot of trouble with winmodems. With the invent of broadband internet, the problem has gone away for the majority of home users, but was it resolved? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonEberger Posted May 28, 2007 Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 I priced a similar laptop to what I just bought. Mine was only 80 bucks more for a Latitude. The monitor and HD are slightly smaller on mine, but otherwise identical. I got the MS XP Home and am kinda glad. I would've had to come by a license somewhere since I have to use MS stuff for reports and such to some groups who still require Office (and not always does ooo work perfectly). I installed the Linux distro which I prefer and got the more structurally rigid lappy. I wasn't blown away by the cost decrease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted May 28, 2007 Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 When it comes to bundled software and operating systems, I find that these laptops have the only sane offering, to my mind, barring some Linux-bundled solutions. This is why I don't use anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 I wasn't blown away by the cost decrease.You're not going to be. The price difference is basically the price Dell is paying for the OEM version of Windows they put on the machines. Pretty much what one would expect. The cost of the parts and the labor to put the box together doesn't change because of the OS ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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